In the production of coffee beverages for the home or for commercial and institutional purposes, it is a common practice to grind the coffee beans to thereby freshly prepare the coffee grounds for contact with the water to produce the beverage. This method increases the palatability of the beverage by comparison with beverages made from ground coffee prepared at an earlier point in time. However, the problem of maintaining the roasted coffee beans in a fresh state has remained. By and large, the approach taken heretofore to maintain the coffee beans in a fresh state has been to store the coffee beans in a hermetically-sealed or similar container. Usually only the quantity of coffee beans which are needed to prepare the beverage at one time is removed from the container. Otherwise the coffee beans tend to accumulate moisture and produce a beverage which is somewhat lacking in taste.